Moshe Feiglin: The Redemption is not on Automatic Pilot

The process that is unfolding right now in Israel is wonderful and amazing. I am amazed at the achievements that we have had just like you are, but I am not closing my eyes to the dangers.
I want this process to continue, yet you cannot come and say that there is nothing to worry about.

What is it that they used to tell us?
"There is nothing to worry about, the process of redemption is on auto-pilot. We learned the writings of Rabbi Kook, and we know that everything will be alright. We’ll build settlements, go to yeshivot, and serve in elite combat units in the army. Our political, judicial, and academic leaders don’t understand what we are doing because they haven’t learned Rav Kook’s writings like we have. We know that the redemption is on auto-pilot, and the only direction is up."

We were stricken by the expulsion from Yamit, by the expulsion from Gush Katif, yet we did not understand.
We continued to say, "There is nothing to worry about, everything is in order, because we have 13 Nobel Prize winners." I’m really happy that we have 13 Nobel Prize winners, and I can mention even more amazing achievements.

But you cannot say, "Amazing things are happening here, and that is why there is nothing to worry about." There is something to worry about. I also believe, like you, that we are in the process of redemption, but if we don’t do our part, and leave everything up to G-d, we will absorb one blow after another. We are, in fact, absorbing these blows, constantly.

I would just like to remind everyone here:
Who built Gush Katif? The Labor party.
Who built Yitzhar? The Likud.
What is being built today in Judea and Samaria? The Arab city of Rawabi and the separation fence. And when you drive to Jerusalem, you must pass through an international crossing. If we succeed in building a house inside a settlement, even at this point in time, when the government has already lifted the settlement construction freeze, we think it’s an amazing achievement.
I agree with you that, in terms of the big picture, our current strategic reality is the reality of redemption. But on a tactical level, when looking at our daily lives, we are seeing that the state of Israel and its leaders are pushing us away from the Divine and miraculous redemption, and leading us into a state of retreat.

Today, in the settlements, we are fighting a war of survival, if you haven’t noticed.
A war of survival!
We hope that Netanyahu will stop trying to delay the Outpost Law [to legalize settlement outposts], just so that Migron will continue to exist. I have news for you. With Gush Katif, Peace Now did not petition the Supreme Court to have the settlements destroyed [unlike with Migron, which is being threatened because of a Peace Now petition].

There is a real problem. There is a conscious decision by the Israeli leadership to retreat, to dismantle these great achievements in all fields, not just with the settlements. I have focused on the settlements because that’s what is hurting us the most right now, but in reality this retreat is affecting all areas of life, including education and culture.
There is this big fan that they’ve put before us that is blowing away all of the amazing achievements that we’ve attained, and trying to scatter and break them all down. Now, we can try to run around and catch one of these things as the wind carries them away, and get an Outpost Law, or hold a protest that will stop another retreat. I’m not against these types of tactics. I also used them. I established "Zo Artzenu" ["This is Our Land," which held nationwide protests in the 1990’s] to try to stop the Oslo Accords, but someone at some point must take hold of this big fan and turn it in the opposite direction.

That is why I established Manhigut Yehudit:To put together a new agenda, to give the public some sort of goal, some kind of alternative to the current path that we are on. To come to the Jewish public in Israel with some sort of hope - a vision towards which we can work.
It’s not enough to sit in the cockpit of a plane, behind the controls, and constantly focus on evading the next anti-aircraft missile fired at it. The plane needs to have some sort of destination toward which to fly.